


A Rat Is Only A Rat

by marauders_4_life



Series: NaNoWriMo July 2019 Stories [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Murder, Squibs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23857075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marauders_4_life/pseuds/marauders_4_life
Summary: Caleb had been back in England for a year now and it wasn’t until that winter that he treated his first rat since starting at the veterinarian practice.  It wasn’t until Caleb got back to one of the examination rooms that the rat started to talk; begging again and again not to be killed.It wasn’t until he felt pain in his back and the stickiness of blood that he realized he had been stabbed. It wasn’t until a man towered over him until he realized the rat wasn’t a rat at all.
Series: NaNoWriMo July 2019 Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716592
Kudos: 2





	A Rat Is Only A Rat

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Murder  
> If this topic will trigger you then please don't read.

He always wished that he could have gone to Hogwarts. 

Caleb knew that it was his and every other kid’s dream once they knew of the wizarding world. His mother, a witch, had only mentioned Hogwarts a few times and liked to keep magic and him apart. He could count on one hand the number of times he saw her perform magic in the past. When he was younger he asked her about her reluctance to show him magic. Her response was that she didn’t want to make him jealous, as Caleb himself would never be able to perform magic. 

He was a squib. 

The rare times when his mother did talk about magic it usually ended with the message that Caleb was normal. That his lack of magic didn’t make him deserve death, like so many purebloods said. So instead of whining about not being able to attend Hogwarts, something he knew he could never do without risking his life. He threw himself into his oh-so-normal Muggle classes. He learned everything from math to music, but nothing could replace his love for science and biology. 

He wanted to become a veterinarian. 

Caleb was never shy about his interest in animals; every time they visited large cities he dragged him and his mother into the nearest pet shop. So he didn’t expect his mother to react any differently than how she reacted when he told her about his university plans. She hugged him and bragged about having a smart son all throughout seventy-two, but Caleb didn't expect her attitude to change when he but he started applying to British universities in the fall of seventy-three. One night his mother sat him down and told him that he couldn’t go to school here, that he would be dead before he could even graduate. The tensions in the wizarding world, the world he knew so little about, was ramping up and was going to soon affect everyone who had even the smallest connection to magic. Especially those who were squibs. So the next morning he started gathering information about universities all around America. 

He loved America but missed England. 

The eight years he spent in America was amazing; he was learning about topics that he loved and was meeting new people. His new American friends took him on road trips to see places that he could have only dreamt about seeing if he had gone to school back home in England. He also liked the voices that he had now learned to deal with. Before he left his mother forced him to drink a smelly clear liquid, that he was sure wasn’t water. He didn't notice the difference in London, on the flight to America, or on the train taking him to his campus. He only started to hear the voices a few weeks into the start of term; he didn't know why or even how but he was able to hear what the animals around him were saying. It was helpful when he was interning at the local vet clinics and quite annoying when the birds wouldn’t stop talking when he was studying; but also comforting in a way because it was his mothers parting gift. Even with the gift, he missed his mother, the small town where he grew up, and his slowly fading accent. 

He hated rats. 

Caleb had been back in England for a year now, he had graduated from veterinary school then once his training was finished he was on the first plane back. He didn’t know how the wizarding war ended but his mother sent him a letter saying that it was finally safe to come home. At first, he stayed with her, both of them not talking about what she had given him. Even with his lack of knowledge of the wizarding world, Caleb knew that whatever his mother had done must have been illegal. After a few weeks his American degree was authenticated and he a licensed as a British veterinarian; he found a job at a clinic just outside Leeds. He was one of the seven veterinarians working at the practice and focused on dogs. Cats had never liked him, he wasn’t licensed to work on exotic animals, and he absolutely refused to work on rats. 

* * *

It wasn’t until that winter that he treated his first rat since starting at the practice. The clinic was open twenty-four seven and today he was the only one on the night shift. A family came in; a mother and father along with three children following close behind. The mother, who had introduced herself as Susan, said that they wanted to drop off their pet rat who they got a few years ago at a rescue shelter, he had been found in a pet shop in early November with damage to his paws. She explained that the rat was getting old and started biting and scratching; as she said that she pointed to her youngest son who had bandages on his fingers and the daughter who had matching bandages on her palms. So Caleb took the carrier and watched as the family left; equal parts upset that the family had abandoned their pet and grateful that the rat, as gross as they are, could get a better family. 

It wasn’t until Caleb got back to one of the examination rooms, all pets had to be examined before the rescue shelter came to pick them up, that the rat started to talk. This wasn’t uncommon as pets tend to get upset when they were taken away from their families along with the fact that rats usually don’t talk, hamsters and gerbils are talkative rodents but not rats. The rat begged again and again not to be killed; not listening to his reassurances that he wouldn’t hurt him, so Caleb left the room to go get some rat treats along with the rodent examination tools. 

It wasn’t until Caleb closed the door of the examination room and put down all his supplies that Caleb realized that the rat wasn’t on the exam table anymore. 

It wasn’t until he felt pain in his back and the stickiness of blood that he realized he had been stabbed.

It wasn’t until a man towered over him until he realized the rat wasn’t a rat at all. 

It wasn’t until the next morning that Caleb was found, lying in a pool of his own blood with vet scissors sticking out of his back, by a veterinarian technician. The police detectives didn’t know who could have done it. There were only two security cameras, one focused on the entrance and one of the exit, and they showed the family leaving. They interviewed the family that left that night, but other than them no one had been at the clinic for the rest of the night. 

It wasn’t until the police forensic detectives looked closely at the pixelated video that they saw a rat scurrying out of the doggy door close to the time of death that the medical examiner determined. The case grew cold because then again rat is only a rat, and rats don't stab people in the back. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you see any typos please inform me, all I want to do is improve my writing.  
> This was part of the NaNoWriMo July event that happened in 2019 that I just got around to editing, because of all my extra free time now. The prompt was from Pintrest, if you want to see the original post then use this link ( https://pin.it/2pvHb7g ).


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